Garden Teachings

I have learned many things since beginning my Alaska garden.  Some relate to gardening and some relate to life.  God uses the many hours I've spent there and gardening illustrations to speak truth to me.  One such recent lesson I had was on humility.

Our sugar snap pea plants have gotten huge.  Like, they're as tall as me.  As a result of the largeness of these plants and the fact that they're climbers, it's been difficult keeping them upright.  We've tried a few different types of string to make a "ladder" for them and I've attempted different methods of using the string to make them straight and stay that way.  But they're just too heavy.  They keep falling over.  Now, some have remained straight, but several sections have bent down too far to warrant the effort of bringing them back up.

The other day as we were picking peas, I noticed something.  The nice and straight ones had peas on them, yes, but do you know where the abundance of the crop was?  Under the bent plants.  The ones scraping the ground.  That's where the treasure was.

And God showed me something.  I can stand straight and tall and look really good and maybe have a little fruit.  Or I can bow.  Be humble.  Bend down.  And have an abundance of fruit.  

Spiritual fruit doesn't come from looking good, seeming spiritual, or even doing "all the right things".  It comes from a heart that humbles itself under the mighty hand of God, receives His grace and allows Him to work in it as He sees fit.  

I can seek to always look super spiritual and do it all myself or I can choose to accept and admit that I'm going to fall and need God's grace every step of the way.  Those plants kept falling.  I'm going to continue to mess up and fail.  It's up to me how I respond.  In a way that covers it up and acts like I'm still perfect?  Or, like the pea plants, will I humbly live in God's grace, bent down, and allow Him to produce an abundance of fruit in my life?

Garden Progress

It's been a while since I've posted an update on the garden and much work and much produce has happened since then!  The potatoes plants are huge and as I hoe between the rows, I see several smaller potatoes pop up from the dirt.  I dug two plants up to see how big they actually were.  The russets were about smallish-medium size and the fingerlings were still small.  I need to hill them again to get them to produce more.

The onions have been used a few times in the kitchen (I love hearing on the radio: "Angie, could you pull up some green onions from the garden for this soup we're making?") and the bulbs are getting bigger.

I just planted all the rest of the radish seeds because I was getting a little tired of doing them over and over in sections and not getting enough to make much for the salad bar.  A bowl of radishes doesn't go very far when you've got 150 people to feed!

The sugar snap peas are pumping out those peas like crazy!  Everyday I go back out and see more pods ready to be picked.  They have been used on the salad bar and are definitely a favorite.  Even Liesl picks with me and eats them as she goes!

The romaine lettuce also continues producing like crazy and we've picked the outer leaves several times for salads.  Last picking gave us half of a huge trash bag full.  The other lettuce has finally begun to look like iceberg heads, so I will leave those alone for a while to get some full heads.

The few carrots that survived the weeds are still growing.  We pulled a big one up and it had a nice carrot underneath.  It was super good!

The beans continue to grow, but I don't expect much.  They still look terrible and yellowish.

Beets may or may not come through for us.

That's all for now!  I'm super excited to dig up potatoes in the fall!!  Ephraim helped dig the two test plants and keeps asking me when we get to do the rest.  I think he enjoyed using that shovel!

I have tried posting pictures three times to this post, but our internet is so slow that they won't load.  Pictures to come later!

Salads from our garden!

Here is our first lettuce cutting. Not bad for just cutting the largest leaves from half the row!  And here are some radishes from the first harvest on my salad!  Yummy!

P.S.  I realize the picture quality is terrible, but these are phone camera shots.  Even so, as a photographer, this makes me cringe!

Mid-Summer and July 4th

We have hit the halfway mark for camp!  This week begins our second Maverick Camp, which is Jr. High age.  The four age groups for camp are: Colt (7-9 year olds), Bronco (10-11 year olds), Maverick (Jr. High), and Sr. High.  We have had one of each so far, plus a second Sr. High camp.  Please continue praying for these campers and the counselors (and the work staff!).  Many are hearing the gospel for the first time and many more are thinking hard about spiritual questions, issues, and what they believe.  I continue to be thoroughly impressed with these counselors as they pour themselves into the campers, spending a great deal of focused time with them and talking with them about life and God.  Pray for these counselors because several have gone weeks with no break from counseling and are on the verge of burn-out.  Pray for renewed strength and the rest that Jesus promises to the weary.  It is good to be able to talk with and encourage these hard-working saints.

Ryan is ready for work

Angie washes pots and pans with counselor Emily

This past weekend was a short but nice respite for us as we all went into town for the 4^th of July and the annual parade through Juneau.  Echo Ranch has a float and we all walk the parade (a total of 3 miles) and hand out candy.  It always amazes me how many people come to the parade.  I realize that two or three cruise ships were docked at that time, but that still leaves a great number of people who live here that come out.  It is so packed at certain spots, particularly when we hit the downtown area.  We saw many campers and their families throughout the parade. 

It has been a joy to work with the work staff this summer as well.  They are very hardworking folks and it has been a growing process for us to figure out how to mentor them as we also oversee their work cleaning. 

Brian and Charlene Hardee came to camp for two weeks as Brian was the chapel speaker

Prayers

• For a young camper and his family.  The Lord knows the details.

• For counselors – many are battling illness and fatigue.

• For us to do the next half of camping season with as much enthusiasm as the first.

Thanksgivings

• For people working together to do God’s work and the Holy Spirit moving hearts – we heard an encouraging story of a mother sending some teenagers to camp because she was concerned they were headed in a very wrong direction and would find themselves in very real trouble if they didn’t change.  Not only did those kids receive Christ, they received Bibles and read them on the ferry ride back home.

• For large puddles to jump in and the creativity of children to find fun in any and all weather, especially rain! 

• For all of you!!  Your prayers are felt all the time!

Camping Fun!

Echo Ranch is running in full force now that camping season has begun!  Last week was our first week of Senior High camp with the theme “Down on the Farm”.  It was jam-packed with zip-lining, horseback riding, laser tag, Mission Impossible, Storm the Castle, a paint war, and hikes.  Those things are super cool in and of themselves, but when used as a tool to share the Gospel, they become all that much better.  During counselor orientation, we had taken a prayer walk around camp to both familiarize the counselors with various areas and their uses and pray over them.  As Randy explained what goes on in these places, he mentioned that there are lots of kids who would never choose to go to Bible camp for the Bible part, but they’ll come to play laser tag.  Or ride horses.  Or learn to survive in the wilderness.  And while they’re having fun doing those things, we get to love on them, build relationships with them, and share God with them.  The week also includes intense chapel messages and times for the kids to share their hearts with fellow campers and counselors.  Tears are shed, burdens are lifted, issues are wrestled with, doubts are voiced, questions are raised, encouragement is given, prayers are spoken.  I am continually amazed at the dedication and love these counselors have to the campers in their cabins.  Several kids this week just weren’t entirely sure about this Christian thing and were contemplating other religions.  Others didn’t feel worthy of God’s love.  One girl shared early in the week that she spent most of her childhood crying over her parents’ fighting.  She said she doesn’t have a lot of faith in marriage or what God tells people to do.  Her counselor spent a lot of time with her, even missing events, to just talk things out.  She wrestled with the Gospel and spent time alone in the chapel.  By the end of the week, she had tears streaming down her smiling face. 

Ryan and I got to head up the other section of counselors who didn’t have cabins this week – the work staff!  These guys get down and dirty with pots and pans, leftover food, nasty toilets, mop buckets, and even pigs.  It’s the behind-the-scenes work and it’s actually very fun!  We turn up the iPod volume and get jiggy wit’ it while we scrub, sweep, mop, and put away dishes.  It was quite the learning curve at the beginning of the week and we had a bit of a frustrating first day, but we reminded ourselves that it was indeed The First Day and we were new at this, so there was a lot of learning to do.  And learn we did!  Ryan’s a fabulous organizer, so he made fancy schedules and lists and all those other organize-ish things that I wish I was good at.  And then we revised, re-communicated things, and re-scheduled as we learned.  Humility is one of those funny things that seemed to creep up often as well, constantly tapping on our shoulder until we acknowledged it and graciously accepted it.  Just another lesson from God that I might not want, but desperately need.

Prayers

• For campers – we get daily prayer requests from each cabin and these campers are dealing with everything from different religions to unhealthy families to relationship issues.    

• For safety – our nurse is busy!

• For the moms here – it’s sometimes hard to balance doing ministry and caring for our kids.

Thanksgivings

• For generosity – we had a Juneau bus driver call in and donate a free week of camp for each kid on her bus route.  That seriously added up to between $10,000 and $15,000.   

• For people around us that bestow grace. 

• For friends.

• For God working in the hearts of everyone here, campers and staff alike. 

Radish Harvest

The first of our radish harvest is in!  I'm not entirely sure how the kitchen will use this first batch because it's kind of small.  We had planned to plant them in smaller portions so we don't have a massive amount at once, but I'm finding that you can't do much with the smaller portions and all of these campers.  So I planted twice as much last week (they go from planting to harvest in about 30 days).  They're all different colors, from red to purple to white, because the variety is called "Easter Egg".  I also think that I will make more of an effort to thin the seedlings of the next batch so that we get bigger ones.

Everything else is up now, but the beets and carrots were difficult to get started because the weeds started in so early and I didn't want to weed in those areas until I saw the plants for fear of pulling them as well.  I think several plants were choked out or unable to even get sunlight because of all the weeds surrounding them.  Spiritual insights are abundant in a garden!  My time weeding has taught me much.

The potatoes and sweet peas are probably doing the very best here!  Ryan helped with the tiller the other day and saved me from all that hoeing.  He went around and hilled the potatoes to get a better production.  So far, we have used no fertilizer or any other chemical on the garden.  Will we be able to continue that way?  I hope so!  I hear that the "popper" seaweed (named because it sounds like that bubble wrap when you step on it) that gets washed up on shore here is a fantastic fertilizer, but I haven't utilized it yet.

The green beans are probably just going to die.  I have heard they don't do that well here unless covered and kept warm and while they came up, they are quickly fading.  At least we tried!  I didn't plant too many, so not much of a waste.

Changing Seasons

While physical seasons are changing from spring to summer, seasons are also changing here at Echo Ranch.  We have just finished our retreat season and are heading into camping season very quickly.  The retreat groups were a great way to connect with tons of people, even for a very short time.  We had several school groups from both Christian and public schools, an adoptive family retreat, a Becoming Outdoor Women retreat (which I probably interacted the most with because they invited us to some of their sessions), and a Fish and Game retreat.  The ministry that happens during retreats is one of hospitality.  Those that come through are all treated with the love of Christ.  We feed them, house them, talk to them, help them when needed, and let them do their thing.  Several kids come to camp in the summer because their parents came to a retreat.  It’s a great way to reach out. 

As soon as the last retreat was done, our counselors began arriving from all over the country.  We have people from New York, Florida, Kansas, California, and everywhere in between.  They then began an intense 2-week orientation process.  Before it began, I truly wondered what in the world they needed to do for orientation that would take 2 weeks.  Now I know.  Every experience, every training, every bit of learning is geared to both teach and unite.  The entire structure works to unify the entire staff in the unity of the Spirit.  To work in this intense environment, very closely connected, for the duration of the summer, we have to work as one.

                                    Serving bierrocks and cupcakes at the Progressive Dinner for counselor orientation

While we have participated in many aspects of counselor orientation (interacting with them, sitting in on sessions, teaching them tasks they will do as work staff, etc), we have also been doing our housekeeping and hospitality job of preparing places to stay for visitors, speakers, volunteers, and various people coming in to teach sessions to the counselors.  That means lots of laundry, lots of vacuuming, lots of sweeping, and even lots of mouse poop – yuck!  Taking care of dead mice and doing the initial pulling out of sleeping bags and blankets from cabins not used all winter is Ryan’s job.  I’ve had one spider land on my arm already and I don’t plan to have another!  And this week I had the privilege of being the “laundry queen”, doing the counselors’ personal laundry.  During work staff, one counselor has this job each day.  Since they’re still in orientation, I am doing the job and learning the ropes this week.  And of course, the garden continues to need care. 

Prayers

• For counselors as they adjust to a new place, a new job, new people to work with and gear up to do the intense work of counseling. 

• For safety, both in traveling and activities during camp.

• For us to have our spiritual armor on – Satan loves to attack where the gospel is going forth.  Pray we would be bold and have open eyes and a clear mind filled with wisdom.

Thanksgivings

• For the beauty of creation – this week alone we have seen sea otters swimming, humpback whales breaching (jumping clear out of the water), black bear cubs foraging for food, and new life in a baby horse.

• For unity in our staff and counselors. 

• For humility.

• For the Lord’s healing hand, His tender love, and His mercies that are new every morning.